


Dustsceawung

by collapsethelightintoearth



Series: Dark(ish) Doctor Drabbles [2]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Also An Excellent Tag, Angst, Character Study, Dark Doctor (Doctor Who), Drabble, Drama, Dubious Morality, Gallifrey, Gen, Gen Work, Hurt No Comfort, Introspection, Mentioned Rose Tyler, Morally Ambiguous Character, Mostly Gen, Tenth Doctor Angst, Tenth Doctor Era, The Doctor (Doctor Who) is a Mess, Time Lord Victorious, Time Lords and Ladies, Time War (Doctor Who), Time War Angst (Doctor Who), Wordcount: 100-500
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:54:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23072782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/collapsethelightintoearth/pseuds/collapsethelightintoearth
Summary: Dustsceawung (n.): The reflection of former civilizations and peoples, and on the knowledge that all things return to dustOr:War, by its very nature, encourages acts of atrocity, and the Time War—a conflict whose scope existed beyond comprehension—made it so,soeasy.
Series: Dark(ish) Doctor Drabbles [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1651645
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	Dustsceawung

War, by its very nature, encourages acts of atrocity, and the Time War—a conflict whose scope existed beyond comprehension—made it so, _so_ easy. Anyone _could_ have ended it all, in theory, but it was the Doctor who stepped up to carry this great and terrible mantle—the Oncoming Storm, the Destroyer of Worlds. While those lofty titles didn’t sit quite right with him, they never felt as wrong as they should have for someone whose chosen name was an implicit oath to provide aid and care.

Gallifrey was the home of his childhood, twice lost—first to his drive to run far away from the rest of the Time Lords and all their dusty, stifling rules, and second to their near-annihilation. (Total annihilation—extinction—the Doctor knows, will come one day, and maybe should have already, but he’ll run from _that_ truth for as long as he can, too.)

The Doctor has borne witness to the dawn and dusk of innumerable worlds, long enough that he sometimes finds it hard to see civilizations as more than their endless, cycling rhythm: _rise, fall, rise, fall, ri_ _se,_ _fall_. His companions help with that, but temporary fixes will always yield temporary results, no matter how desperately he wills it to be otherwise. (When Rose smiled up at him, eyes bright with her promise of _forever_ , all the Doctor could feel was the timeless imprint of artron energy and the smoldering, blood-red sky of his blood-soaked world.)

His people were a dangerous combination of ancient and arrogant and incalculably corrupt, so in the end maybe it was all worth it. (The road to hell, the Doctor knows, is paved with good intentions, though his often fall short of being even _that_.)

And it’s easy, especially for people who are most _themselves_ when operating in the murky waters just outside of proper morality, to justify an atrocity. And so the Doctor tells himself that Gallifrey’s destruction was always an inevitability, regardless of the specifics of when and how, and that the Time Lords, in the end, would never have been able to outlive their own hubris.

And sometimes, it's almost even enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to the commenters on my previous drabble, _Agathokakological_ , for inspiring me to continue this rambling Whovian angst-fest. Your comments made my week and also made me write more, so.... comments. yeah. 10/10 would recommend.


End file.
